What we're looking at
This 30-second TV spot claims that J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman from Arizona's 5th Congressional District, took $150,000 from "infamous" former Washington lobbyist "(Jack) Abramoff and his clients." The ad claims that, unlike "most" other politicians who gave back "all the tainted money," Hayworth "kept the money."

The ad
A 30-second TV spot titled "Corrupt Politician."

Analysis
Though named in newspaper reports as part of the preliminary focus of a Justice Department probe, Hayworth to this day denies that he was ever a target and says he cooperated fully with prosecutors in their investigation of the Abramoff influence-peddling scandal. Hayworth never was charged, but he donated to charity the $2,250 that Abramoff contributed to Hayworth's campaigns and leadership political-action committee from 1996 to 1999. But Hayworth also kept a large amount of money given by Indian tribes connected at one time or another to Abramoff.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic in late 2005, Joe Eule, Hayworth's then-House chief of staff, put the amount at $150,000 over seven years. Hayworth also was criticized for using, and initially not reporting as "in-kind" contributions, Abramoff's sports skyboxes for five fundraisers from 1999 to 2001. Eventually, Hayworth amended his Federal Election Commission reports and refunded nearly $13,000 to two tribes for use of the suites, The Republic reported.

Mark Sanders, Hayworth's campaign spokesman, complained that the McCain ad doesn't make it clear that Hayworth got rid of the $2,250 that came directly from the corrupt lobbyist.

"The reality was that money (mentioned in the McCain commercial) came from tribes that Hayworth had worked with over the years," Sanders said. "Hayworth went to them and asked if they would like to have their money refunded, and they said no. They were quite happy to keep him in Congress."

Sanders’ statement jibes with Eule's claims that the tribes refused to take the money back. At the time, Eule showed The Republic a letter from one of the tribes, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, that said Abramoff did not coerce them into giving money to certain politicians. The Tigua Tribe of El Paso told The Republic essentially the same thing: that they didn't want any of the contributions back that they gave to candidates in the 2002 cycle.

"Because tribes were unfortunate enough to have Jack Abramoff as a lobbyist, people all of a sudden think it's dirty money," Eule said at the time. "Look, if you're giving the money back, you're admitting that either the tribes did something wrong in giving it to you, or you did something wrong in taking it. In our case, neither of those is true."

But unlike Hayworth, other lawmakers enmeshed in the Abramoff scandal did relinquish the Abramoff-linked money. As of late December 2005, at least three senators and one House member jettisoned a total of more than $250,000 tied to Abramoff clients, and others were under pressure to do the same.

Citing Hayworth's association with the Abramoff scandal, the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has included Hayworth on its list of "Crooked Candidates" of 2010.

Viewers -- and, more importantly, voters -- will have to determine whether they agree with McCain's contention that the Abramoff-linked tribal money was "tainted" and weigh whether Hayworth's decision to keep it was appropriate. But while McCain is under no obligation to make his opponent's case for him, the ad does misleadingly imply that Hayworth kept all the money associated with Abramoff, failing to mention the $2,250 he gave to charity.

What we're looking at
A television ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee said U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., turned her back on her constituents and walked away from them at a town-hall meeting when they showed up to ask her questions.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

Analysis
The Aug. 6, 2009, event at a grocery store in Holbrook was billed as a "Chat with Ann," essentially a chance for constituents to sit down one on one with the congresswoman. The "chats" are an opportunity for constituents to get help from Kirkpatrick and her staff with issues including claims for veterans' benefits and mortgage adjustments. Kirkpatrick campaign spokesman Derek Frome said constituents often bring paperwork related to their issue.

The Aug. 6 event featured Kirkpatrick with a table and chair in the entryway of a Safeway store, Frome said, so it clearly wasn't set up as a town-hall event. Town-hall events typically are held in open areas, with the representative or candidate addressing a large group and taking questions from attendees.

Kirkpatrick's campaign provided two announcements inviting residents to the Aug. 6 event that called it a "Chat with Ann." A July 30 news release said Kirkpatrick "will hold her first 'Chat with Ann' events at the Safeway grocery stores in Payson and Holbrook, visiting with folks so they can share their thoughts on what is happening in Arizona and Washington. The congresswoman has made it a priority to be available to people throughout Greater Arizona, and with these locations she is trying to make it as convenient as possible for folks to discuss their concerns and issues."

Another announcement provided by the campaign also refers to it as a "Chat with Ann." The announcement asks constituents to "Please drop by and let her know what issues you care about or to inform her about an issue that you need help with."

A video of the event shows Kirkpatrick seated at a table, meeting with people one on one. There are people gathered around and speaking, while a staffer asks people to sign in and remain in line. Some of the people seem to become annoyed, with some declaring it a "farce."

One woman yells, "There's no point in being here if we can't hear what's being said." She yells it twice more, and the crowd noise grows louder. The woman yells the same statement twice more, much louder. A man can be heard saying he thinks most of the people in the crowd will have similar questions and they would all like to hear Kirkpatrick's answers.

More people start shouting, while some ask, "Isn't this a town-hall meeting?"

A staffer says it is a "Chat with Ann," and the crowd noise rises and more people shout. A woman shouts that she has a question, and the crowd quiets down to listen. The woman's question isn't audible in the video, but as Kirkpatrick is answering, the woman interrupts and says everyone wants to hear the answer.

The crowd applauds, and Kirkpatrick gets up and walks out. Members of the crowd are shouting, and some start applauding as she leaves and yell, "Yay!" Kirkpatrick gets into a car and drives away.

Kirkpatrick was "disappointed that the event was disrupted by a small but vocal group," according to an Aug. 6, 2009, article on Politico's "On Congress" blog. Kirkpatrick said the chats "are meant to give people a chance to let me know what they need and what's important to them, and today's disruptions meant that a lot of folks did not get that chance."

Kirkpatrick said she looked forward to future public events but wished for a "return of civility and respectful dialogue where the focus is on the people and not scoring political points."

In a tele-town hall with constituents on Aug. 18, 2009, Kirkpatrick spoke about the event.

"Now I know a lot of you have heard about what happened in Holbrook, and I just want tell you that I take full responsibility for that," Kirkpatrick said. "We had been having one-on-one 'Chats with Ann,' throughout the district, but it was very evident when we were in Holbrook that people wanted a public town hall. The venue wasn't appropriate for that, but I want to you know that I've instructed my staff to schedule a public town hall in Holbrook and throughout the district so that we can meet your needs."

Kirkpatrick then took questions about health care from callers.

She later scheduled a town hall in Holbrook on Sept. 3, 2009.

The bottom line: It's true that Kirkpatrick walked out of the event, but it's misleading to portray one-on-one meetings held in the entrance of a Safeway store as a town hall where constituents would have expected to show up and hear Kirkpatrick answer questions in a group format. Kirkpatrick walked out of the event as it became disruptive and noisy. The ad says Kirkpatrick turned her back on her constituents and isn't listening but fails to mention the tele-town hall and the actual town hall held a month later.

What we're looking at
Whether Surprise mayoral candidate Sharon Wolcott has correctly represented her political background.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"I'm a registered independent. Actually, I'm a lifelong registered independent who served with the Democratic caucus when I served in the (Minnesota) Legislature."

The forum
Wolcott made the statement to The Arizona Republic during a campaign rally at her home May 3, the same day she resigned from the City Council to run for mayor.

Analysis
Wolcott changed her party affiliation with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office to undesignated or independent in November 2010, about two months before she formed an exploratory committee to run for mayor. She had been a registered Democrat in Arizona since January 2007.

Wolcott served in the Minnesota state Legislature for 12 years, from 1995 to 2006. Minnesota does not allow voters to register with political parties, so she had no party affiliation for at least 15 years before moving to Arizona.

However, Wolcott was heavily involved in Democratic politics in Minnesota. She was five times elected to the Legislature on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor ticket, the state's equivalent to the Democratic Party. She was elected as a state representative in 1994 and later served as a senator. Her 2002 senate campaign received $6,000 in donations from a Democratic party committee.

During her time in the state House, Wolcott twice served as assistant leader of the Democratic caucus. She was also one of several dozen co-chairs of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign in Minnesota.

In 2006, Wolcott, who was then known as Sharon Marko, briefly ran for U.S. Congress as a Democrat. She dropped out weeks after declaring, saying she got a late start and needed to focus on her legislative work.

Wolcott said she moved to Surprise shortly after finishing her last session in the Minnesota Legislature in 2006. When she ran for the Surprise City Council in 2009, she was endorsed by Arizona List, a Tucson-based group that supports Democratic women who are pro-choice on abortion issues. The group cheered her as the “the first pro-choice Democratic woman member of the Surprise City Council.”

Bottom line: Although city elections are officially non-partisan, Wolcott has misrepresented her past party affiliation. She was inaccurate when she stated she was a lifelong registered independent and has downplayed her involvement with the Democratic Party in Minnesota.

Wolcott's campaign spokesman, Robert Johnson, would not directly address questions regarding Wolcott's statement about her past party registration.

“The contest for mayor of surprise is a non-partisan race which makes party registration, past or present, irrelevant,” Johnson wrote in an e-mail. “If elected mayor, she will continue to represent all residents of the City regardless of her or their party affiliation.”

Wolcott faces five potential challengers for the Aug. 30 primary, including incumbent Lyn Truitt. Candidates must collect nearly 900 signatures by June 1 to get on the ballot.

What we're looking at
State Sen. David Schapira, D-Tempe, said the Senate Democrats had about 20 minutes' notice of a special session on redistricting.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"On the Senate side, we got no more than 20 minutes' notice. Literally, not a member of our caucus nor our staff was contacted about a possible special session until 15 minutes ago, 20 minutes until the special session is supposed to start."

The forum
He made the comment at a Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, news conference at the state Capitol at 12:50 p.m., 10 minutes before the expected start of a special session on redistricting. At that point, the governor had not issued a call for a special session.

Analysis
Rumors circulated for days that Gov. Jan Brewer would call a special session of the Legislature to seek confirmation of her removal of one or more members of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. She needed the vote of two-thirds of the Legislature, or at least 20 senators, to authorize the removal or removals.

On Monday, Oct. 31, legislative leaders and staff notified lawmakers that they might need to return to the Capitol.
Senate Majority Whip Steve Pierce sent an e-mail that Monday to all Senate Republicans, advising them to prepare for a Tuesday special session at about 1 p.m. The e-mail went out at 1:16 p.m. Monday, according to the time stamp.
Nine minutes later, the Senate chief of staff forwarded the message via e-mail to other Senate staffers, including the Democrats' chief of staff, Peter Silverman. One of Silverman's duties is to keep members of the Democratic caucus abreast of scheduling issues. However, Schapira said he never got that notification.

The Arizona Constitution gives the governor the power to call the Legislature into "extraordinary session." There is no requirement for the call to be issued with ample time to assemble lawmakers. Typically, legislators are told to be prepared for such a session even if the details are unclear.

Schapira said that historically, either the Governor's Office or Republican leadership also will notify members individually, in advance, that they need to be at the Capitol for the special session once it's confirmed. He said he never got an official notification until minutes before the start of the session.

At 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, Secretary of State Ken Bennett, in his role as acting governor, issued the proclamation for a special session to start immediately. Brewer was out of the state; the Arizona Constitution stipulates that when that's the case, the secretary of state fills in.

Bottom line: The e-mails show that Senate Democratic staff had electronic notification 24 hours before the anticipated start of the session, so Schapira's claim about less than an hour's notice to staff is incorrect. Schapira said he did not receive the information personally.

What we're looking at
State Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson; Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa; and legislative candidate Adam Kwasman -- who are all running for seats in the new Legislative District 11 -- said the fiscal 2012 budget was free of gimmicks and borrowing.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"(Smith) joined Melvin in the State Senate where they worked together to pass a balanced budget free of the gimmicks and borrowing that had plagued Arizona for years."

The forum
News release, e-mailed Jan. 30, announcing that the three candidates will team up to run in the new Legislative District 11.

Analysis
The fiscal 2012 budget did not include any new borrowing after several years of legislative actions that racked up debt. But it did contain several gimmicks.

For example, lawmakers relied on $318 million in fund sweeps to balance the budget, according to documents from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. That is the practice of taking the cash balances in various funds and using them for purposes other than what the funds were intended. The GOP legislative leadership has vowed to not use sweeps as it works on the fiscal 2013 budget.

The current-year budget also gets an assist from local governments. This includes a mandatory payment of $38.6 million from the state’s five most-populous counties, as well as a $6.3 million payment from cities and towns to help cover the cost of the state Department of Water Resources.

Gov. Jan Brewer pledged to work with lawmakers to stop the practice of requiring a “contribution” from the counties in fiscal 2013, and half of the Legislature has signed on to a bill that would fund the water agency entirely out of state funds and end the forced $6.3 million transfer from the cities.

Smith and Melvin both voted for the fiscal 2012 budget, which contained the fund sweeps, the county payments and the city transfers for the water department.

Bottom line: The fiscal 2012 budget did not contain any new borrowing, but it did rely on several gimmicks to balance.

What we're looking at
Gov. Jan Brewer said in a news release that Arizona ranked seventh in job growth in 2011.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"Arizona is on the way back, with job growth over the last year rated 7th-best nationally."

The forum
A news release posted Jan. 25 on the governor's website.

Analysis
The governor was using a ranking released in December by Arizona State Universityï¿½s W.P. Carey School of Business, according to Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Brewer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases job data every month. The Carey School uses these numbers to calculate each stateï¿½s ranking, said Lee McPheters, director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center at the Carey School. McPheters presented Octoberï¿½s data at an economic-forecast luncheon that Brewer attended on Dec. 7.

At the time of the study's release, the data showed Arizona as having the seventh-highest job-growth rate in the nation, based on year-over-year comparisons from October 2010 to October 2011. ASU compared BLS data released later in December and revised Arizona's ranking for October to sixth in the nation.

McPheters said in an e-mail that the rankings for given months are subject to change based on whether the BLS retroactively revises its data.

The job-growth ranking for a calendar year is calculated by averaging the job-growth figures for all 12 months. This method ranks Arizona 22nd, McPheters said. This is still a significant improvement over the annual rankings for 2009 and 2010, when Arizona ranked 49th.

ASU didn't publish the December data and yearlong rankings until Jan. 25, the same day Brewer published her news release. Although Brewer's office might not have been aware of the latest numbers, the November ranking would have been readily available.

Bottom line: Although Brewer's statement that Arizona ranked seventh in job growth nationally was accurate at one point, officials had updated the figures by the time her office sent out the news release. Arizona ranks 22nd in job growth based on data for all of 2011.

What we're looking at
Congressional candidate Travis Grantham said the ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico prompted two of the worldï¿½s largest rigs to leave the Gulf to drill in other countries' waters, which is partly responsible for high gas prices.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"President Obama's decision to place a moratorium on deep-water drilling was a disastrous decision and will greatly affect our countries (sic) ability to produce for years to come. Because of his actions, 2 of the largest deepwater drilling platforms in the world left and were placed in foreign waters where they are safely producing today and selling back to the United States at a premium which is partially to blame for our high gas prices."

The forum
A news release posted Jan. 25 on the governor's website.

Analysis
Grantham is referring to the BP blowout -- the April 2010 explosion of the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven crew members died in the blast, which left oil spewing into the ocean for almost three months. In response to the blowout, the Obama administration and the Interior Department in May 2010, while BP was still struggling to cap the leaking well, placed a moratorium on deep-water drilling.

Grantham's campaign site said his family business, International Air Response, which can provide aerial dispersants, went to the Gulf as part of the cleanup crew.

The ban was lifted in October 2010, but not before many deep-water drilling platforms left U.S. waters to drill elsewhere.

Since the April 2010 explosion, 11 deep-water drilling rigs have left the Gulf of Mexico for other countries such as Brazil and Egypt, according to a December 2011 report by the American Petroleum Institute, a national trade association representing the oil and gas industry.

Grantham specified that of the drilling platforms that left the Gulf, two were among the largest in the world. He said he got his information from several news articles.

He did not say if by "largest" he was referring to the platform's size, its drilling depth, its pumping capacity, its crew size or some other measurement.

Carlton Carroll, a spokesman with the American Petroleum Institute, said the industry generally doesn't rank rigs by size.

"We don't really measure rigs," Carroll said.

API doesn't keep a list of all the rigs in the world along with their accompanying dimensions, Carroll said, and he wasn't aware of any companies having a database of all rigs.

As far as the oil rigs' departure causing higher gas prices, the drilling ban did have an effect, said Phil Flynn, a market analyst who studies energy prices.

"There's absolutely no doubt that the moratorium has added to high gas prices," Flynn said.

But whether two specific oil rigs out of the 11 that left the country have been selling back oil to the U.S. at a higher profit -- and whether that has contributed to high gas prices -- is not certain.

"It's very possible theyï¿½re selling the oil back to us at a higher price," Flynn said.

Bottom line: Eleven deep-water drilling rigs did leave the Gulf of Mexico for foreign waters after the moratorium was imposed. But it is unclear whether any of them were among the world's largest, as Grantham said, partly because he didn't say how he was measuring size, and partly because the industry doesn't generally rate rigs by size. It is also possible, but not certain, that the departure of the rigs is a factor in the price of gas.

What we're looking at
Maricopa County sheriff candidate Paul Penzone said in a news release that under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, more than 40,000 felony warrants remain outstanding.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The forum
A news release posted on Penzone’s website on Jan. 24, 2012.

Analysis
The number of felony warrants Penzone used can be traced to a Goldwater Institute report from December 2008. The report stated Arizona had more than 40,000 outstanding felony warrants as of September 2008.

Several news organizations, including The Arizona Republic, reported the figure in stories that year. The Huffington Post also repeated the number in several recent stories, which Penzone cited along with the older reports.

Since then, the number of outstanding warrants has decreased significantly, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Paul Chagolla. A U.S. Marshals Service report, which used Sheriff’s Office data on warrants, showed the number of outstanding Maricopa County felony warrants as 31,679 as of September 2011.

A more recent tally from January, 2012, lists 30,587 outstanding felony warrants as of December.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office acts as a repository for all warrants in the county. It is not the sole agency responsible for serving those warrants -- each agency shares this responsibility -- but the Sheriff’s Office does have the largest jurisdiction in the county.

The U.S. Marshals Service attributed the decline in outstanding warrants to its Arizona W.A.N.T.E.D. Task Force, a collaborative effort made up of more than 120 law-enforcement officers from 25 agencies across the state. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office does not have any detectives assigned to the task force, said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona.

Chagolla attributed the drop over recent years to unspecified initiatives in the Sheriff’s Office.

Bottom line: Recent reports indicate the number of outstanding felony warrants in Maricopa County is roughly 30,000. Penzone cited news reports listing 40,000 outstanding warrants, but this data has been outdated for some time.

What we're looking at
Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson and candidate for state Senate in District 11, tweeted that all trucking companies in Arizona are hiring, and that any able-bodied person can get a commercial driver’s license in three weeks.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"Every trucking company based in AZ is hiring. Any able bodied man or woman who wants to work can get a commer. drivers lic in 3 wks."

The forum
Tweet sent by @SenatorMelvin on Feb. 8, 2012.

Analysis
The U.S. trucking industry will need hundreds of thousands of new drivers over the next decade, said Karen Rasmussen, president and CEO of the Arizona Trucking Association.

The trucking business is recovering from the recession, Rasmussen said, but many drivers found other work during the recession and left the industry. On top of that, Rasmussen said, an entire generation of older drivers is nearing retirement.

There is a great demand for truck drivers, but data on every Arizona company's hiring status aren't compiled. The Arizona Trucking Association has about 200 trucking companies as members.

Melvin also claimed that people can get a commercial driver’s license in three weeks.

The requirements for earning a commercial driver's license are more extensive than those for a standard one, said Robert Knapp, school director for HDS Truck Driving Institute in Tucson.

There are multiple trucking schools in Arizona; the American Institute of Technology and Knight Transportation are among the companies that offer classes.

Before receiving a learner's permit, applicants have to pass a physical exam and a written test about the commercial driver's license, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation website.

Applicants must then pass a driving test. ADOT spokesman Timothy Tait said in an e-mail that it's possible to complete the whole process in a matter of days if the applicant has the required experience and access to a vehicle to take the driving test in.

ADOT does not provide vehicles for this test. If the driver doesn't have access to one, he or she has to take the test through a third party, such as HDS Truck Driving Institute.

Knapp said HDS offers a four-week class that provides novice drivers with 160 hours of trucking experience. He added that while it's possible to pass the driving test with less experience, most trucking companies won't hire someone with fewer than 160 hours behind the wheel.

Although an able-bodied person can get a license in less than three weeks, Knapp said companies place further requirements on drivers. Many companies won't hire someone with any drug convictions, misdemeanors or even speeding tickets, Knapp said.

Chuck Riser, president and CEO of Central Arizona Freight Inc., said his company has added roughly 30 employees over the past three years, but he said he wouldn't hire someone directly out of trucking school. Larger national companies such as Werner Enterprises might, Riser said.

Bottom line: There is no official data for every Arizona trucking company's hiring status, so Melvin's claim that every company is hiring is unsupported. However, the industry's need for additional drivers is well-documented. And while it's possible for a healthy person to obtain a license in three weeks, as Melvin said, potential employees need a clean record and a significant amount of driving experience before most companies will hire them.

Sources
Interview with Karen Rasmussen, president and CEO of the Arizona Trucking Association.

Interview with Robert Knapp, school director for HDS Truck Driving Institute.

Interview with Chuck Riser, president and CEO of Central Arizona Freight Inc.

What we're looking at
Kyrsten Sinema, who is running for Congress, said the majority of members in some unions, especially police and fire, are Republican.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"In some of our unions, particularly amongst police and fire, the majority of the members are Republican."

The forum
Feb. 6, 2012, appearance on Current TV's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

Analysis
Sinema based her statement on anecdotal information she heard from conversations with police officers and firefighters, said Sinema's campaign spokesman Danny Friedman.

The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents police officers' political interests, doesn't have records on the political affiliations of its members, PLEA President Joe Clure said. But he also said he believed Sinema's statement was probably accurate.

"With police, it's certainly true that they tend to be Republican," Clure said. "As a general rule, police just by their nature are typically more of a conservative nature."

A spokesman for the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona declined to comment on the political affiliations of the group's members.

"The Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona has more than 6,500 members of every single political party, and they hold all sorts of political beliefs across the spectrum," said group spokesman David Leibowitz.

Bottom line: Members of police unions in Arizona may tend to be Republican, but it seems there are no records to support that assumption. It is unclear how many of Arizona's firefighters are Republican.

SourcesSinema's Current TV appearance, Feb. 6, 2012
Interview with Sinema's campaign spokesman, Danny Friedman
Interview with Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association
Interview with David Leibowitz, spokesman of the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona

What we're looking at
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that more than 40 percent of American children are born to unwed mothers.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"Over 40 percent of children born in America are born out of wedlock."

The forum
Santorum made the comment during the Republican presidential debate in Mesa on Feb. 22, 2012.

Analysis
More than 4 million children were born in 2010 in the United States, according to the most recent National Center for Health Statistics report on U.S. births.

Another NCHS report states that roughly 1.6 million of those children were born to unwed mothers. The percentage of all children born to unwed mothers in the U.S. is 40.8 percent, according to the report.

Bottom line: Santorum was correct; more than 40 percent of all children born in the U.S. in 2010 were to unwed mothers.

What we're looking at
State Rep. Terri Proud, R-Tucson, said that Tucson has the highest property taxes in the state as well as one of the worst foreclosure rates in the nation.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"Tucson ranks among the worst in the nation for foreclosures yet has the highest property taxes in the state."

The forum
News release issued by Terri Proud on Feb. 13, 2012.

Analysis
Real-estate company RealtyTrac, a leading source for foreclosure data, compiles monthly statistics for housing in the United States.

It's difficult to rank individual cities because towns with a small number of homes are ranked alongside cities with thousands, skewing the ranking.

To avoid this, RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist said, the firm compiles foreclosure rankings for metropolitan areas with populations of more than 200,000, of which there are 212 nationwide. RealtyTrac uses Pima County as a proxy for the Tucson metropolitan area, Blomquist said.

In 2011, Pima County ranked 22nd out of the 212 cities in foreclosure rate. Roughly 2.8 percent of all houses in Pima County were foreclosed on last year, compared with a national rate of 1.45 percent, Blomquist said.

Determining property taxes for a single city also is difficult, Pima County Treasurer Beth Ford said. A property can have widely ranging taxes based on its location, she said.

The Arizona Department of Revenue tracked average property-tax rates by county in 2011. According to the department's report, Pima County had the second highest in average property-tax rate in 2011. The same report lists Pinal County, just to the north of Pima, as the highest in the state for the past two years.

Pima County had the highest average tax rate in 2009, but Pinal County also surpassed it in 2010.

Ford said Pima County has high property rates partly because it's the only county in Arizona without a sales tax.

Bottom line: While Proud was correct that Tucson ranks among the worst metropolitan areas in the nation in foreclosures, Pinal County has had the highest average property-tax rate in the state for two straight years, with Pima County ranking second.

What we're looking at
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the E-Verify program has caused illegal immigration in Arizona to diminish by 14 percent, while nationally the number of undocumented immigrants has dropped by 7 percent.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"(A)s a result of E-Verify being put in place, the number of people in Arizona that are here illegally has dropped by some 14 percent, where the national average has only gone down 7 percent."

Analysis
E-Verify is a free federal online program that businesses can use to check new hires' eligibility to work in the United States by checking database records from Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration. The program is run by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

Romney got his numbers from a January 2010 report from the Department of Homeland Security, according to his press secretary.

Although the federal government doesn't require businesses to use E-Verify (except for certain companies that have government contracts), the Legal Arizona Workers Act, a state law implemented in 2008, does.

If a company in Arizona is found to have hired an undocumented worker in 2008 or after, the state can revoke its business license.

It is impossible to track the number of illegal immigrants who have left Arizona. However, the Department of Homeland Security estimated the number of illegal immigrants in the state based on a sampling.

From 2008, the year E-Verify was mandated in Arizona, to 2010, the number of estimated illegal immigrants in Arizona dropped by 16 percent (about 90,000 people), according to the DHS document. Nationally, the number fell by 7 percent, according to DHS.

In 2008, the estimated population of illegal immigrants in Arizona was 560,000, which fell to 470,000 in 2010, according to DHS.

The report Romney used doesn't mention E-Verify.

However, a report by the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-profit, nonpartisan think tank that studies public policy, states that the decline in illegal immigrants in Arizona during this time period was a result of the law requiring businesses in the state to check new hires' legal status. The report also says the drop was not because of the recession.

Bottom line: Two reports support Romney's statement that the number of illegal immigrants in Arizona has declined since the state started requiring businesses to use E-Verify. In fact, DHS says the number of illegal immigrants in Arizona fell by 16 percent in the two years after the sanctions law was enacted, 2 percentage points higher than what Romney said.

What we're looking at
Jonathan Paton, a former state lawmaker and Republican candidate for Congress, said in September that his opponent in Congressional District 1 is avoiding debates. He said Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, a former congresswoman, had canceled on a number of nonpartisan forums.

The ad
A 30-second commercial called "Ann Kirkpatrick Has Turned Her Back On Arizona."

Summary of the ad
The commercial shows video from a Kirkpatrick event in Holbrook on Aug. 6, 2009. "Her constituents came to this town-hall meeting to ask her questions," the narrator says. "What did Kirkpatrick do? She turned her back and walked away. It says something when a politician turns her back on her constituents. It means she's not listening." The video shows Kirkpatrick walking through a crowd and out of a building. People in the crowd watch her leave and appear to be shouting at her as she exits.

The comment
"This is just the latest in a string of non-partisan candidate forums hosted by the media that Ann Kirkpatrick has skipped out on."

Analysis
Paton, Kirkpatrick and Libertarian Kim Allen have since debated twice -- on Oct. 4 in Casa Grande and on Oct. 8 in Marana -- but those came after months of false starts.

In his September release, Paton claimed that Kirkpatrick had "skipped out" on a series of nonpartisan debates and forums with Arizona Public Media and the Maricopa Monitor in the prior three months.

Jennifer Johnson, Kirkpatrick's spokeswoman, told The Arizona Republic that Paton's release was a "flat-out lie. No debate was ever confirmed, and, therefore, no debate was canceled."

Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media, said there had been a "miscommunication" in regard to the Sept. 14 forum.

Michaels, however, said Arizona Public Media had tried to reschedule a debate for Paton, Kirkpatrick and Allen. He said that although Kirkpatrick's campaign suggested the new date, it "appears they might not be attending" due to scheduling conflicts.

In August, Arizona Public Media could not arrange a "mutually agreeable schedule" for the District 1 Democratic primary candidates.

Paton also claims that Kirkpatrick did not attend a forum hosted by the Maricopa Monitor in July, which Adam Gaub, the editor, confirmed.

Johnson says the Kirkpatrick campaign has had a "number of invitations ... and it's impossible to fit everything in."

Bottom line: Kirkpatrick did not attend a forum in July. Whether she "skipped" others is not as certain because it's not as clear cut whether there had been a debate formally scheduled.

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AZ Fact Check: Keeping Arizona Honest

AZ Fact Check is a service of The Arizona Republic, 12 News and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. It is not affiliated with www.FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.